Untold Legends: Brotherhood of the Blade Review

Untold Legends: Brotherhood of the Blade takes the simple yet addictive
dungeon hack play of the Champions of Norrath games and puts it into a tight
portable package for play on the PSP. Untold Legends features the same type of
endless stream of enemies gameplay as found in its console cousins, but the
move to a smaller system has resulted in cutbacks in the size of the game’s
world and in the depth of its storyline. The result is an action-RPG that
strips away most of the RPG side of the equation, leaving you with the hack
and slash core of the game. This is not necessarily a bad thing, as with a
portable game its good to have something you can put down and pick up when
needed without having to remember where you are within a complex storyline. On
the other hand, if you’re really looking for a portable RPG, then you’ll more
than likely find Untold Legends wanting.

Surrounded ... again.

In Untold Legends you play as a person who has just won the sparring
championship of a local festival. However, the locals like to keep quiet a
little detail of the champion’s responsibilities – the festival champion is
responsible for defending the town in time of dire need. Lo and behold, for
the first time in years such a crisis erupts and you’re pressed into service
as the town’s defender. What starts out as an annoying and perplexing giant
spider infestation soon turns out to be just a small part of a far greater
danger, a danger which you must put an end to.

While this story provides the motivation for your slaughter of thousands,
there’s not a whole lot of depth here. Basically you talk to the next key
character which involves reading a few lines of text, and each of these
characters invariably needs an item from the next dungeon on the list that is
guarded by some boss monster. There’s not much of an overworld, so you
basically clean out the dungeon, return the item, and then talk to the next
person in the chain. This allows you to spend more quality time in the
dungeons hacking away, but it can also make your quest seem repetitive and at
times somewhat pointless.

Character selection is on the light side as well, with only four to choose
from and no way to customize their look. You basically get two fighters, two
casters, two males, two females, … it gives you the distinct impression that
the developers were going more for a balance of characters for multiplayer
gaming rather than providing very distinct classes to vary the single player
experience.